All my answers in Orange Lemon Sugarfree Panna cotta

“Orange is the happiest color.” says Frank Sinatra

After making Pannacotta for the February Daring Baker Challenge, with what else could I wish Babaji Happy birthday.... Making Parshad is always such a delight... :)

The Orange, Lemon Sugarfree panacotta is a winner all the way... why?
This is the single answer to so many dietary restrictions... Diabetic (Sugarfree), Egg Allergy(No Egg), Migraine(No Chocolate, No Coffee).

The song 'IF TODAY WAS YOUR LAST DAY' is ringing in my head..... Birthday's are the start of a new year.. a new you and what all would we really like to do....
Just can't get this song from the album Dark Horse by Nickelback out of my head.....

IF TODAY WAS YOUR LAST DAY LYRICS by Nickelback

My best friend gave me the best advice
He said each day's a gift and not a given right
Leave no stone unturned, leave your fears behind
And try to take the path less traveled by
That first step you take is the longest stride

If Today Was Your Last Day
and tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to yesterday'
Would you live each moment like your last'
Leave old pictures in the past
Donate every dime you have'
If today was your last day

Against the grain should be a way of life
What's worth the prize is always worth the fight
Every second counts 'cause there's no second try
So live like you'll never live it twice
Don't take the free ride in your own life

If today was your last day
and tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to yesterday'
Would you live each moment like your last'
Leave old pictures in the past
Donate every dime you have'
Would you call old friends you never see'
Reminisce of memories
Would you forgive your enemies'
Would you find that one you're dreamin' of'
Swear up and down to God above
That you finally fall in love
If today was your last day

If today was your last day
Would you make your mark by mending a broken heart'
You know it's never too late to shoot for the stars
Regardless of who you are
So do whatever it takes
'Cause you can't rewind a moment in this life
Let nothin' stand in your way
Cause the hands of time are never on your side

If today was your last day
and tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to yesterday'

Would you live each moment like your last'
Leave old pictures in the past
Donate every dime you have'
Would you call old friends you never see'
Reminisce of memories
Would you forgive your enemies'
Would you find that one you're dreamin' of'
Swear up and down to God above
That you finally fall in love
If today was your last day

Zesty Orange Sugarfree Brownies for Abhimanyu's Birthday Parshad

It was my brother Abhimanyu's birthday and also a Durbar day..... So.... So obviously I made the parshad... Most of the people who give up Sugar due to myriad reasons, crave chocolate cause most of the Sugarfree desserts available commercially are fruity, custardy or creamy....
Step in Nachiketa[pl allow me some immodesty :) ], after my success with Sugarfree Cherry Brownies... I made Sugarfree Orange Brownies :) I used Fresh orange juice and zest along with Splenda...

He's the quintessential Shy-Guy, who has young women swooning around him ;)
That's his mom, my chachi...the evergreen young lady of our house :)


Happy Birthday, Bro :)

What's the similarity between a Sincere Kiss and Chocolate Tiramisu?

The 3 very special people in my life....... Babaji, Upma mom and Mom.....

Is this special or what....... Yes making parshad is always special for me.... the effort is huge cause I need to make it for about 350 people (including the sugarfree version) in 1 weekend and transport it to North Delhi from South Delhi ;) I can Proudly say that divine grace has always been with me and the task at hand gets done despite the challenges.
That's Shobha didi and Sudha aunty distributing, Manish eating :) , Tarush and Nikki helping out.....

That's my POSERS INC... Sadhika, Geetika, Disha, Shrishti, Shinky and Mom :)

My earlier trysts with this dessert..... You Know.... It's For YOU, Tiramisu..., Chocolate Tiramisu ~ Amrita's Birthday, Cappuccino Tiramisu Cheesecake for Baking Queen ~ Deeba's Birthday, Flying Tiramisu Cupcakes, Chocolate Tiramisu, the dessert of Decadence. You can use any of these recipes.... they all worked like magic for me..... :) *really smug grin*

What actually made me decide that this is what I'm going to make as parshad.....
Had made this for Vivekji's Promotion party and everyone loved it..... I had loved the taste of this dessert myself[very evident with the number of times I've made it and loads of posts on it :)] The encouragement which I got from everyone at the party and support from Vibha had me decided.... :)
The after party smses made my day... was feeling so so Happy... :) :) :)

Vivek ji: Mummy aapka desert party ka oasis tha n u looked beautiful....

Vibha: Hey! N thanks to u for such awesome dessert man! It was perfectly done n u excelled yourself totally! Your being there made the party fun :)

Madame you have totally taken the cake this time! Ur dessert wuz simply purrfect, the rite sweetness, body, silkiness.. I ve bin pigging on it today n hv bi sittin n appreciating all day..

Sorry to put u on such a high :)) but both my sisters have totally freaked on ur dessert wch i call choc tiramisu, n they think its the best that they've ever eaten! Now that u r an established best in the field, i hv prasad on diwali. Do u want to do the dessert on totally professional basis? I thot better to ask u before i explore my next choices.. By the way, the food critic is also at work.. In ur dessert u ve to reduce the quantity of rum n spice it with little tini mini sugar n sm cinnamon. Rite now, the overpowering taste is taking away the sinful pleasure.. Which has to come subtly and gradually, not as a bolt in ur mouth..

The dessert was a major hit with gunjan n all the other darbaris who came yesterday.. Ran short.. Got polished off in 5 secs flat!

The next person to taste some was Amitabh who shared his feedback...

Amitabh :Whatever it was, it was yummy :-)
Nachi: Thanks.... Was a tiramisu variant..... Chocolate tiramisu.... :)
Amitabh : Did it have some spirit in it as well?
Nachi: Yo! Rum in d cake n baileys in the mascarpone n cream layer :)
Amitabh: That explains that extra sting at the end.....mmm. Repeating soon? With more rum?
Nachi: Was it sting or shot of flavour?28th parshad....
Amitabh: :-) Had to have a quick bite to give a precise answer: the liquor is strong enough to tickle your nostrils and slightly overpowers the other subtle flavours of the tiramisu.....fine for people like me but may get the more sensitive Durbar gentry a bit tipsy.....;-)

So I took out the Rum Soaked raisins from my earlier preparation... and there we have it..... To-Die-For 'Chocolate Tiramisu'[excuse my immodesty but I really enjoyed it... :)]. The luxurious nature of this dessert just takes my heart away.... read more about it at Chocolate Tiramisu, the dessert of Decadence.

A big thank you to all my tasters for making me grin like a Cheshire Cat :)


While making the dessert... I would lick the remains of from the mixing bowl.... I was in L-O-V-E with it..... and totally ignored all the love handles it would give me... When we melted the chocolate to make the Chocolate Ganache... the aroma in the house was like a chocolate factory....... just sheer B-L-I-S-S.....

Since this was a layered dessert, had started preparations much earlier... like baking the sponge happened during the week and much needed hand-at-work was invited over... My sweet little Sous Chef for this task was Tarini, She was so helpful and such a delight to work with. Vibha and Vivekji also pitched in......

At the Durbar we have Bunty Bhaiya, Veena bua, Charu Aunty n Oditi immersed in various tasks....
Nikki, Gulla, Shrishti, my sweetie Ciona, Geetika and Sadhika... all of having a rollicking time....

How can I miss The imp.... Gunjan, Radhika Didi, Anjali, Yogita, Nikhil, Sonal and Lily..... Am so glad everyone enjoyed the Chocolate Tiramisu....

My specials.... Neha Didi, Nivritti[She was instrumental in getting the stickers on the lids...], Amitabh[one of my Sushi partners], Gaurav, Mini Didi and mom :)

Verdict:
It was just Fabulous... Mind blowing and we all enjoyed it..... What I enjoyed the most after all the hard work was so many of us coming together.... Letting go the ego of 'I made it' to feel grateful for all the wonderful people I'm blessed to have around me. The feeling is truly liberating. Would love to make this over and over again to see their eyes close and smiles wide on their faces.....
What's the similarity between a sincere kiss and sinfully yummy dessert.....
Most people enjoy them with their eyes closed...... and are always left wanting More.... :)

Shinky:
Hey Nachi, missed telling you this yesterday, tiramisu was just amazing ! You're just too good !! :) enjoyed every bite.

Meetu:
It was the most awesomelicious tiramasu I have had..... Great work Done :)

All of Diyas, Mithai, Parties, Friends n Family at Diwali

Diwali is always special...... We meet up with friends relative and most of all.... do loads of fun stuff with Daksayani.... :)

We made this really colourful rangoli outside the house......

Soon we were joined by the neighbour's kids, Simran and Armaan...... We did both the traditional hard work way and the easy short cut way of using stencils....

Then in the evening we went for puja to Mall rd.... it was such a sublime atmosphere.....

My totally fav person in the WWW....... whole wide world......

That's Poser INC at Mall rd.... Sadhika, Neha Didi, Nikhil, Veena didi, Ciona, Mini Didi and Mala Chachi.

The kids had a total blast Ciona and Gunjan.....

The parshad for Diwali was made by my soul partner for desserts, Vibha, we even dream the same stufffffffff..... Cooking for over 300+ people..... It was just so so so so yummy that I still can't stop droolllllling over the yummy pasta......

There was fusilli pasta[loaded with Olived n Mushrooms..... my absolute favs.....],The sauce was smooth, tangy and had just the right amt of spice..... Chocolate Eclair from Modern Bazzar and chips....... her spice mix was the show stealer.... yeah I did sneak some for later.... .

The Hyderabad Diwali was brighter this time with chetan arround in India after so long..... Grandparents had lovely time with Nivritti and Chetan.

Partied with the office gang aswell...... The party's theme was 'Tauba Tera Jalwa'.... and what 'J-A-L-W-A' there was.... so much that it's censored on my blog..... what happens at the party, stays at the party..... ;)

The rangoli's made by both teams in office were fantastic..... so much hard work... all made worthwhile by the twinkled eyes which were full of wonder looking at these......

That's Rozy[part of the 99acres sales team] getting the 'We Value You' award at work.... Then there's Amit n Bhaskar [My Product team], n Gunjan our energetic party animal n Amrita[Amit's wife]

We got back Diya shaped mithai as parshad from babaji in Mall rd...... They looked so pretty and were totally d-e-l-i-s-h.... Am not a great fan of mithai but these..... They were out of the world......

Diwali, The festival of lights.......

Banana Walnut Chocochip Muffins and Cherry Brownies for Parshad

That's Babaji and Radhika didi...... It was Radhika didi's turn to give parshad in Mall Rd.... She asked me to make it instead of ordering at a store.... Yippeee.... This is very very special for me.... Have done Parshad earlier for my birthday, had made 'Cappuccino Tiramisu Cheesecake' and 'Ragu and Olive Pasta Primavera'.
That's babji and me.... Making parshad is a difficult task as it needs lots of planning in terms of shortlisting what to make, it must be easy to transport, ingredients should be easy to get, should withstand the weather, easy to eat in a crowded place and most of all easy to make cause if there are too many steps then making 300 individual servings and keeping it fresh is a issue from a home kitchen....

Another aspect is to think of Sugarfree parshad too. Most diabetics crave chocolate as all the store bought things are done with fruit and custard or paneer based indian sweets....... My challenge was to make something chocolate with Sugarfree, with aftertaste of the artificial sweetner like splenda.

My belief is that while making parshad, if the attitude is 'I am the Doer' the obstacles are many.... if the attitude is 'I am the instrument', all obstacles are overcome.... Something which Priya didi taught me when i made parshad last time... It worked really well this time.....

To zero in on what to make, I made samples of To Die for 'Banana Chocochip Muffins' for Radhika didi, which would qualify all the criteria I mentioned above. She wanted them with walnuts and chocolate... made another sample batch, which had what she described[she wanted cocoa in them] and another with my version....... made her taste both without telling her which one was which...... She liked the improvisation which I had done... :)
Hence I came to the conclusion...

In most cases the consumer doesn't always want what they are saying... We need to know the strain of concern and then use our tasting/baking skills to create products which match their taste...... and sometimes be firm about the final product to work within the given deadline :)

These muffins were clearly 'Objects of Desire'..... given that they had no butter and very very little oil [I used sunflower oil, a healthier option without compromise on taste :) ]......
The monkey's totally tell my tale.... it was very hard for me to resist popping a muffin each from every lot I made. Very Very Tempting.......

My selection for the sugarfree parshad was 'Sugarfree Cherry Brownies'. Just that I made it loaded with cherries and used 1.5 times more chocolate.... worked like magic..... :)

I had taken over my sister's entire room for mixing and packing & drawing room for ovens as that's the only place which had high power sockets and noone would go in cause the room would be really warm due to the ovens running the entire day..... We worked on Friday from 7pm in the evening to 4am in the morning, Saturday from 10am to 2pm at night, Sunday from 11am to 3pm. By the end of it I had a bed full of 265 muffins[2 special ones for Daksayani with no chocolate n nuts] & 50 Brownies and 1 Bowl of eggless Mango Fool for Geetika[She's allergic to eggs] as parshad and lots of boxes of muffins to give for friends.... :)

These moist yummies have been a delight to make, it's such a forgiving recipe and not very exacting..... But the sheer hard, back breaking work for getting to the 300 mark was something else.....

Everyone really enjoyed them.... Babaji said they were really tasty. Vibha, Gunjan, Richa, Bhaskar, Sravanthi, Hitesh, Sukhpreet, Sumit, Nikhil, Kirti, Madhurima, Bhawna, Vibhore, Vivek, Pushpanjali, Anuraag, Rimjhim, Gunjan and lots more people said they were lipsmakingly delicious.....

Gunjan had a field day with chocolate.... :)

As long as she was unaware she's being clicked, I got natural pictures n the minute she was aware of the camera.... full on posing happened....

Verdict:
Vibha:
hey nachi,
tnx a trillion to u n neelu for the bonus brownies. I'm savouring them by putting a large chunk of my homemade choc fudge on top n microwaving it for 30 secs! Oh! It tastes like bliss! AWESOME!

Arunima: Thanks a ton...The muffins were just awesome :) Everyone loved those :D

Punee Bagai: nachi the muffins were awesome thanx a ton hope u got our sms too. The boys loved them...

Anjli:
Hey Nachi,
What a lovely surprise to get the yum yum muffins- monsoon showers, cool breezes and now this - our welcome to Delhi couldn't have been better!
Thanks much much,
love,
Anjli

Green Thai Curry, Coriander Rice and Chocolate Cherry Trifle for Parshad By Vibha

That's Vibha.. She's this really cool mom[of 2, Karan and Tarini] who has an awesome career as a lawyer along with being one of the most amazing people I know. She and Vivekji[her husband] give me some hope that being married may make sense and add value to my life ;)
Had done a birthday cake for her earlier 'Haroun n the Sea of Stories Inspires Vibha's Hoopoe Lemon Cake'.

It was Vibha's turn to make parshad as courts are closed for holidays. Making parshad yourself instead of ordering from a shop calls for a lot of determination and coming together of the whole family as a unit and some times friends aswell depending on the complexity of the dishes selected.


Gunjan had a total field day... There were her 2 favourites 'chips' and 'chocolate' looking dessert.... She was freaking out with the parshad, playing with Poonam aunty's Seahorse keychain and I was freaking out clicking her and the antics she would do after eating chocolate... :)
Vibha's Thai Curry
(The quantities in all recipes aren't water tight as this was done for 300 people. Pl use your discretion where-ever quantities are not mentioned)
Ingredients:
Readymade Green Thai Curry Paste [can make it yourself too but advisable to purchase when cooking for 300 helpings from a home kitchen]

Vegetable of your choice chopped:
Aubergines
Broccoli
Mushrooms,
Carrots
Zucchini

Currry Paste:
Groudnut oil
Onion
Galagal
Cocunut cream

Flavours:
Red full chillies
Green chillies
Basil leaves
Salt to taste

Method:
Dice white small aubergines, broccoli, mushrooms, carrots zucchini n othher vegetables.
Make a paste of onion n galagal n roast it in 2 teasps of groudnut oil.
Add the vegetables, carrots. [Slow softening ones first and the rest n stir fry till crisp but soft].
Add one large spoon of readymade green thai curry paste.
Add red full chillies, green chillies, basil leaves n salt t taste.
Finally add coconut cream or milk and water to desired consistency. [I like it medium thick.]
Simmer fr 5-7 mins.

Vibha's Coriander Rice:
Boil rice.
In a wok heat Peanut Oil.
Add finely chopped garlic n galagal.
Add a little garlic n chilli paste.
Stir fry the rice with lots of finely chopped green coriander.


Vibha's Trifle:
Ingredients:
Chocolate Cake - [Store bought as 300 cups were to be made in 2 days.]

Cherry Jam/Preserve -
2 cups of Cherries
half cup sugar
half cup rum

Chocolate Fudge -
2 cups of Dark Cooking Chocolate
1 cup of Milk
1 cup Sugar
half cup Butter
half cup Sugar

For the Cream layer -
half cup of Milk
half cup of Sugar
A pod of Vanilla or half tsp of vanilla extract
500ml of fresh but well refrigerated Heavy Cream
100 ml of cherry jam/preserve[Prepared in this recipe]
2 teaspoons of Gelatin

Method:
Cherry Jam/Preserve -
Split cherries in half, pit them and soak em overnite with sugar n dark rum.
After 24 hours,cook it in the juices till it starts becoming a sticky cherry jam/preserve.
Cool to room temperature.

For chocolate fudge -
Take dark chocolate, milk, butter n sugar in a pan. Bring all ingredients to boil and cook on medium fire till it becomes homogeneous.
Cool to room temperature.

For the Cream layer -
In a pan take milk n sugar, and heat it with vanilla till a single boil. Cool the mixture.
Mix cherry jam/preserve, heavy cream and add the cooled milk mix in it.
Soften gelatin by letting it stand mixed for 5 - 10min in a small bowl of water.
Whip the cream alone with an electric mixer, n then whip the whole mix.
After whipping make sure there are no big bubbles are formed while whiping.
Add gelatin and Mix well.

Assembly:
Line the bottom of your setting bowls with a thick slice of dark chocolate cake.
Layer it with the pitted cherries.
Refrigerating for at least 30 mins.
Pour cream mix n top with chocolate fudge n cherries.
Then refrigerate at least fr 4 hrs.
Serve cool.


Gunjan and Jayanti had a blast with the Trifle pudding and left the rice and curry for the mummies.... But mummies being mummies... They ensure the kids eat the rice and veggies too :)

Verdict:
The rice and curry was flavoured just right... served in amazing quantities for about 300 people. That's a lot of hard work.
The Trifle was presented very well and held it's own right till late in the evening despite the extremely hot weather conditions.
Amazing packaging. Total Thumbs up :)

A BIG thanks to Vibha, Vivekji, Tarini, Amani and Karan for the yummiest parshad.